The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Tehran

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday Iran had overcome difficulties en route to a nuclear energy industry and no one could stop it, a day after France called for wider European sanctions to rein in Tehran. Diplomats said Iran had installed close to 3,000 centrifuge machines, enough to start refining usable amounts of nuclear fuel, but would need to run them in unison at high speeds for long periods to atain that threshold.

"I announce to the whole world that the Iranian nation has passed the difficult points (on its nuclear path)," Ahmadinejad said in remarks carried by Iran's official news agency IRNA. "And no power can stop this nation from making more and more (atomic) achievements."